Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra – Lost Direction (CD3016)

Japan’s wildest big band. Shibusa Shirazu, the orchestra led by bassist and composer Daisuke Fuwa, mixes free jazz, rock, funk, punk energy and Japanese folk melodies into a sound that’s impossible to sit still to. Lost Direction is a live recording from April 16, 2002, with a compact 12-piece line-up.

There are four saxophones and clarinets, trumpet, tuba, flute, guitar, organ, keyboards, drums and percussion. The centrepiece is the almost 30-minute “Yukue Shirazu”, an epic that moves from powerful riffs to long, relaxed solos and back again. The two “Hyottoko” pieces, the driving “Naadam” and the closing “Ee Janai Ka” show the band’s love of big melodies, heavy grooves and joyful chaos. Critics compare the orchestra to Sun Ra’s Arkestra and to the late big band of Gil Evans.

This is a must for fans of Sun Ra, big band free jazz, Japanese avant-garde and anyone who likes their jazz loud and celebratory. Released on Moers Music. When you buy here, you’re buying directly from the label, and we only sell originals.

The Side Story

The band’s name roughly means “never be cool”, and Shibusa Shirazu mean it. Daisuke Fuwa founded the orchestra in Tokyo in 1989. Since then, countless Japanese jazz musicians, Butoh dancers and performance artists have passed through it. At their concerts there are often 20 or 30 people on stage, with dancers, costumes, video projections, live painting and giant inflatable creatures. Their roots are in the free jazz of the 1960s, but the influence of 1980s punk and no wave makes the music accessible to rock audiences too.

That’s how they became a festival favourite. They closed the Fuji Rock Festival four years in a row from 2000, and played Glastonbury in 2002 and 2016. They also played the Moers Festival. For a long time, Lost Direction was one of the few Shibusa Shirazu CDs you could easily find in Europe.

Guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi links this album to another Moers artist: he has worked often with saxophonist Ned Rothenberg, whose Double Band appears on three Moers CDs.

Tracklist

1. Hyottoko 2 – 7:09

2. Yukue Shirazu – 29:51

3. Hyottoko 3 – 10:38

4. Naadam – 7:53

5. Ee Janai Ka – 7:12

Compositions and arrangements by Daisuke Fuwa. Total running time: approx. 63 minutes

Personnel

• Daisuke Fuwa – bass, leader

• Hiroaki Katayama – tenor saxophone

• Yoshiyuki Kawaguchi – baritone & soprano saxophone, harmonica

• Keiko Komori – alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet

• Yoichiro Kita – trumpet

• Daisuke Takaoka – tuba

• Aya Murodate – flute, vocals

• Kazuhisa Uchihashi – guitar

• Takeshi Shibuya – organ

• Ayako Sasaki – keyboards, vocals

• Masahiro Uemura – drums

• Mari Sekine – percussion

Details

• Format: CD

• Label: Moers Music

• Catalog no.: CD3016

• Recorded: Live, April 16, 2002

• Released: 2005

• Price: €14.00